So you finally made up your mind that you want to give this keto diet everyone keeps talking about a go, however you don’t know how and where to begin?
From my own experience I know that this can be quite overwhelming and intimidating at the same time.
Don’t worry I got you covered with this easy-to-follow 10 steps-guide on starting keto. It provides all the information needed, setting you up for success in the first few weeks of your keto journey.
STEP 1 – Set your overall Goal
There are many reasons why you would be interested in starting a ketogenic lifestyle:
- Do you finally want to lose weight after having tried so many other diets?
- Are you after optimising your health and adapting keto as a new lifestyle?
- Did you hear all positive about it and just want to give it a go?
- Are you fit already and just want to use the ketogenic diet as a tool to cut the last 5 kg?
Based on each goal you will have to make certain adjustments to your diet as you go. For example, someone who wants to lose weight will have to cut his caloric intake at some point, after the initial fat adaption time.
On the other hand, if you are looking to adapt to keto in order to transit to a healthier lifestyle, you might want to focus on getting the healthiest fats in.
Set a clear goal and find out how to tailor your ketogenic diet approach to that using the other tips below.
STEP 2 – Find out how your Body works
For this one you might have to dig out your old biology text book. When I first started with keto, I needed to know how it works in order to be convinced that this might be the right thing for me.
It really helps to get some basic understanding about the different metabolic states that your body can have (burning sugar vs. burning fat) and how that is all linked to fat accumulation and other diseases.
You don’t need to become an expert in that field, but it certainly helped me to stay on this diet by understanding the “why” behind this approach.
STEP 3 – Look up the foods you can eat
Transitioning to keto is not all about eating meat and cheese all day such as traditional low carb diets suggest. It’s more about getting those healthy fats in such as avocado, coconut oils and nuts.
I suggest you categorise your foods into three main categories:
- Food you should eat on a daily basis
- Stuff you can eat from time to time (no overkills!)
- Things you should completely avoid
Once that’s sorted, go on to the next step and mix them! (But don’t include number 3 foods, please)
STEP 4 – Plan your Meals / Find easy Keto Recipes
Now with planning your meals I don’t mean that you have to know what to eat every single day of the week, five months in advance.
I just want you to look up easy-to-follow recipes ensuring a smooth start into the keto world. It’s not enough to know just about what foods you can and cannot eat, but also how you combine them to form a nutritious (AND YUMMY) diet plan.
This will avoid you just randomly eating the same foods over and over again, setting yourself up for failure in the long run (cause it’s boring).
STEP 5 – Set your Macros based on your Goals
Macro Mix
The ketogenic diet is not a one size fits all approach as everyone has different goals when trying this out. Therefore, there is no such thing as the perfect macronutrient mix.
Ketosis was initially used to treat children with epileptic seizures, for which carbs were almost eliminated. This is referred to as the “therapeutic ketosis” and is an extreme version (but probably the first) of a ketogenic approach, dictating that 90% of your calories should come from fat.
In your case we would want to normalise that and still have some carbs in your daily diet plan. I still recommend that your carb intake is held as low as possible in the first few weeks, promoting a faster adaption into ketosis.
Although everyone is different, the average ketogenic diet has the following ratio of macros in the beginning:
- Fat 70-80%
- Protein 15-25%
- Carbohydrate 5%
By the way, try not to count net carbs (Total Carbs – Fibre) especially in the beginning. This will lead to you trying to cheat more by increasing your overall consumption. Just keep it low!
Caloric intake
No matter whether your goal is to lose 20 kg or just to feel better, I strongly recommend to eat at caloric maintenance (no gain/no loss) for the first few day or even weeks when transitioning. This is just because your body is already busy by transforming itself into a fat burning machine so you shouldn’t increase the stress level even further by drastically reducing your calories.
Keep it at the range where you don’t lose, but also not gain weight. How to find out what number that is? There is a caloric calculator on almost every fitness homepage.
STEP 6 – Track your Macros
Just knowing the number of calories that you consume is not enough unfortunately. It’s extremely important to keep record of
a) your overall caloric intake and
b) the macro mix of your daily meals.
If you’re new to this there is absolutely no way around tracking this. When I first started paying attention to my diet, I was just completely blown away to find out how many calories can fit into the smallest things. I therefore recommend that you track them for at least a month just to get a feeling of what you’re putting in your mouth all day.
Personally, I use MyFitnessPal for that, which is perhaps the easiest way.
STEP 7 – Track your progress
This is crucial to keep you motivated through this early journey, which can let you down from time to time.
By tracking I don’t just mean looking at the scale every day. Due to water fluctuations and other impacting factors like timing of your last meal or stress levels, that scale can faster demotivate than motivate. I suggest to track the following:
- Weight on scale every day/same time (weekly average)
- Waist measurements
- Take progress photos
The last one won’t be as fun in the beginning, but trust me, there is nothing better than comparing the first to the last photo after a couple of months.
STEP 8 – Fight the Flu
Once you mastered your first few days and lowered those carbs, most people will meet the so called “Keto Flu”. You won’t feel very well and get flu-like symptoms which is mainly because you’re not getting enough minerals in.
This happens through drastically reducing your carbs intake (which also flushes out water along with those minerals).
Those minerals are:
Firstly, try to get the first two in simply by add way more salt to your food than you thought is healthy (use Himalayan or sea salt) and eating veggies like spinach or kale.
If the problem still exists after a couple of days, considering magnesium supplements or more veggies.
STEP 9 – Be Consistent
Don’t let a fluctuating scale or a midnight binge eating attack get you off the track. The main thing is to stay consistent as with many things in life. I promise you will see sustainable results if you stick to this lifestyle.
No one said it’s gonna be a pony ride in the beginning, but it’s worth to push through till the end.
STEP 10 – Don’t overdo it
I am talking about exercising, especially high intensity (e.g. sprints) or weight lifting. Those activities are also referred to as “anaerobic”, meaning that your body cannot use oxygen fast enough to create the energy required for that moment.
Your body is required to use glycogen (stored carbs/sugar) as this is the only way it can provide the energy needed. The problem is that after not eating too many carbs for a few days, your body will be almost depleted of them and not be able to give you the power it needs for a sprint.
Go easy in the first few weeks with things like HIIT to see how your body reacts to these kind of exercises. You can expect not be able to perform at the level you were used to in the beginning. Just give your body some time to adjust in order to prevent injuries or other serious things from happening.
I hope you enjoyed my little collection of 10 steps to start keto and found some of the advice helpful for your journey. The better you are prepared the better you will know what’s awaiting you and the more likely it is that you can master the challenging beginning.
Have any more tips to give for starting keto or do you want to share some of your first experiences here?
Leave a comment below!
That is probably the most powerful tool that I use in order to get through a prolonged fast. Keep yourself occupied throughout the entire day and stop thinking about food.
